This film is part of Free

Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Yr Urdd 1959

Children dance in beautiful national costumes and the tradition of wearing a hat is kept by the older generation of female eisteddfod-goers.

Home movie 1959 9 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Urdd Gobaith Cymru – the Welsh-language youth movement - holds its annual Urdd National Eisteddfod and this year it is hosted by Lampeter. The grounds of the town’s secondary school become the ‘maes’ where people meet and greet and eat ice-creams in the sun. Several babies in prams, and a toddler wearing walking reins, get their first taste of the festival, including a glimp of smiling farmer/bard, Dic Jones, winner of the Chair.

Dic Jones - Richard Lewis Jones (1934-2009) - won the Urdd Chair 5 times (1954-1957 and 1959), the latter win in the same year as his marriage to Siân Jones, with whom he had six children. In 1966 he won the Chair at the National Eisteddfod and again, almost, in 1976 but on this occasion he was disqualified, having been on the panel that set the subject for the Chair’s poem. The Chair went instead to Alan Llwyd (Alan Lloyd Roberts) who had also won the Crown that year. Dic Jones was Archdruid of the Gorsedd of Bards in 2008.